Duty, Duty Must Be Done
by King in Yellow
Summary: Written and posted as I sit here, waiting to be called for jury duty. Kim is called to serve on jury duty, and finds it even more exciting than I'm finding it. We had free movies while we waited. Writing sounded better. Best Enemies universe.


Boilerplate Disclaimer: Disney owns all the various characters from the Kim Possible series.

NoDrogs created the twins, whose origin has been altered in my stories.

**Duty, Duty Must Be Done, the Rule Applies to Everyone**

After leaving the twins at school Kim and Shego drove downtown.

"Isn't it exciting?" Kim asked.

"That you'll sit around all week with ninety other people too dumb to get off jury duty? At least you drew a four day week."

"It's civic duty," Kim sniffed. "Have you ever done it?"

Shego chuckled, "Well, in my criminal days they didn't have an address for me, and now they can't call me."

"Because you're a lawyer?"

"No, they can call lawyers. Hell, they can even call judges. But they can't put a felon on probation on a jury – not in this state anyway."

"But felony doesn't stop you from being a lawyer?"

"If you kick out all the felons whole law offices would be decimated. They're a little more forgiving if you commit the felony before you become a lawyer. Ambrose Bierce, remember?"

Shego parked at her law office and Kim walked the two blocks to the courthouse.

Two people who worked for the court addressed the potential jurors and explained the system. Then a Red Cross volunteer asked them, since they were stuck in the courthouse anyway, how many would mind getting stuck with a needle?

Kim joined the volunteers giving blood.

She hoped to get called to a jury early, since her duty was over if she sat on one.

Kim felt lucky when her name was called for the first potential pool of jurors. But before she was even assigned a number a bailiff came in and whispered to the clerk.

"Go back and find a place to sit in the assembly area," the clerk told them. "Case settled."

Kim lingered for a minute, "Does that happen a lot?"

The clerk shrugged, "More often than a trial. A lot of lawyers suddenly see weaknesses in their cases when they know the jury is on its way."

Kim's name was called for a jury pool in the afternoon on her second day. As the potential jurors filed into the courtroom she waved at the DA, "Can Briana have a sleepover this weekend?"

"Sounds great. How are the twins?"

They sent Kim back to the jury assembly room.

"Are you not allowed to talk in the courtroom?" Kim asked as Shego drove them home that afternoon.

"I think the bigger problem was you knew one of the lawyers."

There were fewer potential jurors on the third day. Late in the morning Kim's name came up again for a pool. _"Third time's the charm,"_ she told herself as the bailiff led the group to the courtroom.

A pale, greenish woman in a dark suit sat at the defense table.

"See you for lunch," Shego called as the bailiff escorted Kim back to the jury assembly room.

Kim did not want to get picked for a jury on her last day. If selected for a jury she would continue on it until the trial had ended. While the twenty-one dollars a day they paid her was terribly exciting she did not want to keep coming back.

She spent the morning reading, but immediately after lunch heard her name called again.

"We'll be going up to Judge Armstrong's courtroom in—"

"Judge Armstrong?" Kim interrupted. "Alice Armstrong?"

"Yes, I—"

"I know her! Does that get me off jury duty?"

"Sorry, no. Now—" The bailiff looked at his watch. "We got to go."

As they walked briskly down the hall Kim asked, "Any chance the DA is representing the state?"

"Uh, sorry. Civil case, DA isn't involved."

Kim looked at the plaintiff's table as she came in the courtroom. She'd never seen the lawyer sitting there before. She looked hopefully over at the defense table, but didn't recognize the lawyer sitting there either.

One potential juror was a neighbor to one of the lawyers, and was dismissed from the pool. The Clerk of Court explained the case involved a property line dispute. Had any of the potential jurors "been involved in a lawsuit over property lines?" Two more potential jurors were dismissed.

"Go home," the bailiff told them. "Nothing else on the docket which would require a jury."

The Clerk continued, "Now, in the case of Mankey vs. Sullivan, are any of you acquainted with Joshua Mankey or—"

"YES!" Kim exclaimed loudly, pumping her fist in the air in triumph.

"Jesus, Kim," Shego complained as she drove them home, "you're an embarrassment to know."

"A hundred dollars for contempt of court? It wasn't contempt of court. I was just happy to be going home. And how can it be contempt of court if the trial hadn't even started?"

"From what I hear it was the way you said it more than what you said. Alice said she felt the need to not show any favoritism."

"You never told me she was a hanging judge."

"Civic duty, remember, Kim? This was going to be a week of education for you."

"I should have brought a better book with me," Kim grumbled, "I might have learned something."

Shego laughed, "You probably learned a lot of things about the system. People have to be able to trust the court system for justice. It isn't perfect, nothing is. But they do their best to remove any clear cases of favoritism."

"I guess," Kim sighed. "It's just that the first day I really wanted to serve on a jury, at the end I just wanted to go home."

"But there's good news!"

"I need some."

"In this state they can't call you again for four years."

--

Kim recognized the Ambrose Bierce quote: "Lawyer, _noun,_ one skilled in circumventing the law." All lawyers, and their spouses, know the quote.

--

--The End--


End file.
